Indian-occupied Kashmir is in the grip of a nearly 20-year insurgency that has so far claimed more than 47,000 lives by an official count.

India annexed Kashmir almost half a century ago and does not recognize U.N. resolutions that India’s leaders accepted earlier to allow the Kashmiris a free and fair referendum on whether they want to join Pakistan or India. The issue remains an unfinished business of the British withdrawal from the region after two centuries of colonization. India was ruled Muslim emperors from what is now Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia before the British invaded the region in late 18th century.